I blogged a bit about Hands for Hope and what we do in an earlier post - see here. Now I've been working here for a couple of months, I thought I would write a bit more about the organisation and also what I've been doing.

My role is to manage the day to day running and development of Hands for Hope. This means managing the staff (there are 17 staff and I manage the social work manager, the head teacher and the administrative assistant), the budgets and finance, overseeing the various programmes and projects and looking at how we can fundraise and develop the work we do. 

We are half-way through the first term of the year. As I've previously said, we run a nursery across two sites and then fund children to attend primary and secondary school. We have also supported some young people to attend vocational school, studying catering, tailoring and motorbike mechanics.

However, Hands for Hope does much more than this; we deliver a whole range of work that helps to support the most vulnerable families living in the Namuwongo slum. I've already posted about some of this work, but below are examples of some of the things we've been doing.

I went to our Saturday programme, which we run every week. We partner with the Sound Foundation, who run singing and African drumming and dancing lessons for the children:

The children also take part in reading and art:

A competition to draw the best Uganda flag!

We work to improve the health of the residents in the slum. Life expectancy in Uganda is just 53 and it is likely that the life expectancy of those living in the slum is even lower. As well as partnering with a nearby health clinic to ensure the children and families we work with receive healthcare, we also  run a programme of outreach events on areas such as malaria, sanitation and HIV/AIDS. Two weeks ago we ran an event with The Ian Hutcheon Clinic for Children, on ear health and deaf awareness. The children received free ear checks and also had their faces painted!:

One of the nurses was telling me that they had seen several children who had ear infections caused by cockroaches climbing into their ears whilst asleep... (most of the children in the slum sleep on the floor).

The birth rate in the slum is very high, with mothers often living in a single room with at least 5 children. A few weeks ago we ran a session with Marie Stopes on family planning:

We also deal with individual medical cases. For example, we are currently helping a little boy called Mark to have a kidney transplant. No hospitals in Uganda carry out transplants and so we are fundraising for Mark to undergo his transplant in Nairobi. All being well, this will take place in June.

We run livelihood programmes for women and young people, to support them to set up sustainable businesses. Through our candlemaking programme, we train young people to make candles and these are then sold to visitors and, when we can, at markets etc in Kampala. We have recently developed a partnership with a social enterprise called Good Glass, which recycles glass (that would otherwise end up in landfill, streams or ditches) and make them into household items and ornaments etc (see here). Our young people have been commissioned to make candles for some of these glasses:

Robert with his good glasses!

We also support women to set up small businesses. Here is Maama Gilbert starting up her charcoal selling business:

 

(often women are known as "Maama (then the name of their firstborn)")

The social work/ outreach team support individual families with the issues they face and we meet weekly to discuss individual situations and how we can support families to resolve them. We hold a termly parents meeting. This term's meeting took place last Friday:

Hands for Hope are supported by many individuals. We have recently welcomed Bernadette and Kerstin from Germany, who are volunteering with us for three months. They are studying a degree in child development at Dusseldorf University and have been helping out in the nursery and at the afternoon programme. 

All of our children are sponsored by individuals paying a monthly donation (we are still looking for some sponsors for this year's baby class at nursery). A number of sponsors work for British Airways and come and visit us when their fleet heads to Entebbe. I've been showing round a number of BA staff over the last month. They kindly bring out donations and things we might need that are difficult to come by in Uganda (jaffa cakes were my favourite!). 

We were visited this week by Dan and Kari from the States, who ran a fantastic yoga class for the children (probably one of most amusing and chaotic things I've seen since being here!):

Some of areas of work we are currently developing include a programme for children with disabilities. These children are exceptionally vulnerable as, to some extent disability is still a taboo here. Disabled children are often regarded as shameful, kept indoors and can be neglected. The issue of disabled children accessing education in Uganda has actually been in the UK press this week. See an article here. Hands for Hope have identified 22 disabled children, they have been professionally assessed and we're looking at how we can support them further. We've set up a parents' support group which is now meeting regularly.

We've also looking at how we can do more to support refugee families living in the slum. At a meeting we held last week in partnership with the Refugee Law Project, many of the families attending had fled the Congo and were living in the slum, without having gained their refugee status and so without the rights and support they are entitled to.  

Hands for Hope have almost raised enough funds to buy our own building so we can house our two nurseries together and have more space to deliver community activity and outdoor activities for the children. Tammy (the previous administrator who did a fantastic amount of work to raise the funds), Joe (the director) and I have been to visit a couple of potential sites. 

So there's lots going on and, although sometimes hearing some of the families' stories and seeing such poverty regularly can be difficult, being with children every day is rewarding and lots of fun and I'm really enjoying the job so far.

If you would like you can get regular updates on what we're up to by "liking" our facebook page here